Faculty artists series : St. Lawrence String Quartet with guests Shauna Rolston, cello ; Max Mandel, viola

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FACULTY OF MUSIC

presents

FACULTY ARTIST SERIES
St. Lawrence String Quartet

with guests

Shauna Rolston, cello
Max Mandel, viola

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Friday, February 12, 1999
8:00 p.m.
Walter Hall

THE ST. LAWRENCE STRING QUARTET

GEOFF NUTTALL, VIOLIN
Barry SHIFEMAN, VIOLIN
LesLEY ROBERTSON, VIOLA
Marina Hoover, CELLO

PROGRAMME
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN String Quartet Op. 76, No. 4 “Sunrise”
(1732-1809) Allegro con spirito
Adagio
Menuet (Allegro)

Finale (Allegro, ma non troppo)

PHILIP LOOSEMORE Songs for the Sisters

(b. 1978) Last season the St. Lawrence Quartet and the Composition
Department organised a competition for the composition
students at the Faculty of Music. The work you will hear
tonight by composition student Philip Loosemore
impressed the St. Lawrence above all others, and as a
result was chosen for this performance.

INTERMISSION

PETER ILYCH TCHAIKOVSKY Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70
(1840-1893) String Sextet in D minor
Allegro con spirito
Adagio cantabile e con moto
Allegretto moderato
Allegro vivace
Shauna Rolston, cello
Max Mandel, viola

The St. Lawrence Quartet is represented by:
Columbia Artists Management Inc
165 West 57th Street,
New York, NY 10019

programme notes

String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 76, No. 4 (“Sunrise”)

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN
Born March 31, 1732 in Rohrau, Lower Austria
Died May 31, 1809 in Vienna

Haydn displayed remarkable musical talent at an early age. He grew up in a modest home
in a quiet and somber atmosphere and began to study violin and singing at the age of five.
During these youthful years, he made diligent attempts to compose, though with little
guidance. His talent attracted many leading musicians, and overcoming every difficulty,
he soon made a name for himself. The Esterhazy family, by whom Haydn was employed
for nearly thirty years maintained an establishment of perhaps fifty players and singers for
daily entertainments. As a composer, Haydn was extremely prolific; his output includes
104 symphonies, 83 quartets, 14 masses, 6 oratorios, and an amazing quantity of works
for the keyboard, as well as secular vocal works, dramatic works and chamber music.
Often a composer's last works are not his best, but in Haydn’s case the experience and skill
acquired through the years culminated in his later chamber works. When his contract of
January 1, 1779 freed him from the obligation to compose exclusively for his prince, com-
posing for publishers and patrons became an important consideration in his life and a
decisive factor in what he chose to write.

The six quartets of Op. 76 were composed between the years 1796 and 1798 when Haydn
was also in the process of composing 7be Creation. He dedicated the Op. 76 quartets to
Count Erdédy, one of his Hungarian admirers. The renowned English musicographer,
Charles Burney, writing in reference to the Op. 76 quartets in a letter to Haydn stated: “I
had the great pleasure of hearing your new quartetti well performed before I went out of
town, and never received more pleasure from instrumental music: they are full of inven-
tion, fire, good taste, and new effects ....” While the principles of design and subtleties of
musical texture were long since expertly established in Haydn’s prior quartets, the Op. 76
quartets offer the listener the fruits of his mature style. Moreover, these quartets are further
enhanced stylistically by Haydn’s natural integration of polyphony into the fundamentally
homophonic style common to the quartets of this period thereby adding a new vigor and
power of musical expression.

The Haydn quartet heard in today’s performance is No. 4 of his Op. 76 Quartets. The origin
of its nickname, “Sunrise”, depends for the time being on the interpretation of whomever
one chooses to consult. Although it has more often been attributed to the way the opening
melody “soars aloft above sustained chords,” the inverted theme, painful sforzandi, and

minor chords in the first movement, or the entire piece for that matter, can hardly justify
the name “Sunrise.”

The first movement begins with an accompanimental tonic chord which almost defies its
allegro con spirito tempo marking. It has a jubilant second theme which is also featured
in the development and recapitulation. The second movement, marked adagio, has a
songlike theme accompanied by almost “romantic” arpeggiated harmonies. Added to this
is a deeply meditative trio which features a duet between the first violin and cello. The
Allegro minuet in B-flat provides a vigorous contrast to the second movement beginning
with a syncopated 3/4 trio that recalls the sforzandos of the first movement. Haydn marked
the beginning Finale sezza voce, or “half voice” which is important to the contrasts that
he offers here. It begins with delicate grace notes, then continues through playful counter-
point, increasing twice in tempo (Piz allegro and pitt presto) and arrives immediately at
a vivacious conclusion.

—Edited by Ileen Zovluck
Song for the Sisters

PHILIP LOOSEMORE
Born August 31, 1978, in Toronto

In Jaunary 1996, a young woman named Georgia Economides died of heart failure. She
was a fellow student at my school. I began to work with Georgia’s poetry, moved by its
conviction and humanitarianism. I came to know her family gradually over the summer
of 1997 and was touched by the grief process which they continue to endure. I became
particularly close to Georgia’s sister, Aliki. Work on Song for the Sisters was begun in
October 1997 as a tribute to the relationship between Georgia and Aliki, and as a statement
of my own feelings about the impact of Georgia’s death. It is dedicated to both sisters.

Song for the Sisters was premiered on January 1998 in Walter Hall at the University of
Toronto Faculty of Music by the Toronto-based Gemini String Quartet. It was also per-
formed at an art show opening at the Propeller Gallery in February 1998.

—Philip Loosemore
Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70

PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Born May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Russia
Died November 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg

The music of Tchaikovsky never fails to move its audiences. Interestingly, his works do not
exhibit the raw national and folk-song idiom to the extent of Mussorgsky’s music, for

instance, and his colors are not quite as brilliant as Rimsky-Korsakov’s; yet, more than
those by either of these two composers, Tchaikovsky's works are considered by musicians
all over the world to be the epitome of Russian music. While he adhered to Western Euro-
pean forms of technical skill and lyric style, in his essentials Tchaikovsky remains a Rus-
sian of the most classic tendencies - his language is that of an emotional Slay. His music
glows with the peculiar fire that burned in his soul; rapture and agony, gloom and gaiety
seem in perpetual struggle for expression.

In 1886 Tchaikovsky was elected to the prestigious Petersburg Society of Chamber Music.
To acknowledge the honor, he promised the Society’s chairman that he would write a piece
for the group. The resulting work was the string sextet entitled Souvenir de Florence. The
composer began work on this piece in the summer of 1887 but, with other pressing com-
mitments, he was forced to lay it aside; it was not until May of 1890, during a vacation in
Italy that Tchaikovsky was able to pour his creative energies towards completing the piece.
The work was given a private performance at the Society at the end of November that year,
but the composer was not satisfied with it and resolved to revise the sextet. In December of
1891, Tchaikovsky was finally able to carry out his revisions and the work was completed
in its present state during a visit to Paris in January. The first public performance took
place in November of 1892.

Souvenir de Florence marks the end of the composer's neo-classical bent, which had
endured for nineteen years. The whole piece has a relaxed quality, quite unlike his opera
The Queen of Spades, from the same period. Interestingly, while the sextet was well re-
ceived, neither 7be Nutcracker nor his lolanthe, premiered in the same period, were.

Souvenir de Florence consists of the traditional four movements as one would find in a
symphony or string quartet. The first movement, Allegro con spirito, is cast in a sonata-
allegro form. The first theme is a strident waltz in the minor mode and the ingratiating
second theme is in the major mode. After a short development and recapitulation, the
coda returns to the melancholic minor mode.

The second movement, marked Adagio cantabile e con moto, introduces the Italian
mood for the first time in the work. Employing an A-B-A structure, the outer sections deal
with a plaintive melody reminiscent of an Italian opera aria, first introduced by the first
violin against a broken chord accompaniment from the rest of the instruments. A slightly
agitated episode provides the contrasting middle section.

The Allegretto moderato that follows has the character of a divertissement. It is notable
for its colorful bowing effects, playful rhythms and uncomplicated texture.

The exciting Allegro vivace finale is once again in sonata form. In the recapitulation of
the themes there is an extended fugal section, and the coda which concludes the work
demands virtuosity from its performers.

about the artists

The ST. LAWRENCE QUARTET was formed in Toronto in 1989. In 1992, at the invitation
of the Emerson Quartet they moved to New York City to study in an intensive training
program sponsored by the University of Hartford. They went on to serve as teaching assist-
ants to the Juilliard Quartet at the Juilliard School and the Tokyo Quartet at Yale University.

In 1992 , they won both the Banff International Quartet Competition and the Young Con-
cert Artists Auditions, launching them on a career that has taken them to major concert
venues in North America, Europe, South America and Asia.

For the 1998-99 season, the St. Lawrence Quartet will be recording for an exclusive multi-
record contract with EMI Classics, with the first release of Schumann Quartets scheduled
for the spring of 1999.

They have recently accepted the appointment of Ensemble-in-Residence at Stanford Uni-
versity, where they will serve as the directors of the Dept. of Music's String and Chamber
Music activities. They will continue as Visiting Artists at the University of Toronto in the
1999-2000 academic year.

Concert highlights of this season include performances at the Concertgebouw in Amster-
dam, the Louvre in Paris, and debut recitals in Germany. They recently returned from the
Far East where they performed in Japan and Taiwan. They will appear throughout the
United States with performances at Lincoln Center in New York and at the Library of Con-
gress in Washington , DC. This summer will take them to many of North America's impor-
tant chamber music festivals including Spoleto USA, Santa Fe, La Jolla, Great Lakes (De-
troit) and Ottawa.

Committed to performances of new music, the St. Lawrence will be premiering new works
in the year 2000 by many Canadian composers including Christos Hatzis, R. Murray Schafer,
and Patrick Cardy.

SHAUNA ROLSTON has been captivating audiences worldwide since the age of two and is
now compared to such renowned artists as Jacqueline du Pré, and referred to in The Strad
as “one of her generations most gifted musicians” and in Classic CD as “An Elgarian for
our time, the most remarkable performance of the last twenty years”.

Recognized as a distinguished soloist, recording artist, proponent of new music, and
chamber musician, Ms. Rolston is one of Canada’s most celebrated musicians. She was
recognized as a Young Artist to Watch by Musical America, and in 1993, was named one of
the Canadian Leaders of the Future by Maclean's Magazine. Additional laurels include the
Pro Musicis International Award, the Government of Alberta’s Award for Excellence, and

the Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of Canadian Confederation.

Since making a spectacular Town Hall, New York City debut at the age of 16, Ms. Rolston
performs regularly on four continents, appearing in recital and concerto engagements in
the prestigious halls of Tokyo, Seoul, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Sao Paulo, Toronto, Montreal,
New York, Washington, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Budapest and Rome. In addition to
performing the standard literature, Ms. Rolston has actively sought to expand the cello
repertoire through commissions.

Ms. Rolston has been featured on several discs, including releases with the London
Philharmonia Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra,
and with pianists Isobel Moore, Angela Hewitt, Menahem Pressler, and Bernadene Blaha.

Shauna Rolston earned a BA in Art History from Yale University and a Master of Music
degree from the Yale School of Music where she studied with Aldo Parisot. Ms. Rolston is
currently a Professor at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto.

Violist MAX MANDEL is a student of Steven Dann at the Faculty of Music, University of
Toronto. He has also studied violin with Professor David Zafer. Max is a member of the
Metro String Quartet, who perform regularly across Canada and in the Toronto area. As a
member of the quartet, Max has collaborated with such artists as Laurence Lesser, the
Orfeo Duo and Menahem Pressler. For the past three years, the Metro Quartet has studied
with Lorand Fenyves at the University of Toronto. In May of 1998, the quartet attended the
Juilliard String Quartet Seminar in New York City. Max has appeared as soloist with the
University of Toronto Chamber Orchestra and as conductor/soloist with the Banff Chamber
Players. Max is a much sought after chamber musician and has performed with such
musicians as Lorand Fenyves, Terence Helmer and members of Amici. Recently, Max won
fourth prize at the 1998 Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition. He is also a regular
extra player with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming concerts include his Young
Artist recital and broadcast debut on CBC at the Glenn Gould Studio on March 11.

PHILIP LOOSEMORE is in his second year at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto.
He began studies in theory and composition with Alexander Rapoport at the age of four-
teen at the Royal Conservatory of Music. From 1994 to 1997, Philip attended the Etobicoke
School for the Arts, where he conducted the premieres of a number of his chamber and
orchestra works under the guidance of Barbara Young. Philip has earned several awards
and scholarships from both the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of To-
ronto. He has also attended summer composition programs at the Aspen Music Festival
and Tanglewood Institute.

upcoming faculty artist concerts

February 26, 1999

“Songs We Love” -- Lorna MacDonald, soprano & Dalton Baldwin, piano
Soprano Lorna MacDonald and guest pianist Dalton Baldwin present a recital of works by
Schubert, Debussy, Obradors and Strauss.

March 26, 1999
Mayumi Seiler, violin & Aleksandar Madzar, piano
Heralded by the BBC Music Magazine as having “am exceptional blend of precision with
tonal generosity, finesse with enthusiasm,” acclaimed violinist Mayumi Seiler has performed
with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Royal Philharmonic, the Moscow Symphony,
the Berlin Symphony and the Toronto Symphony.

ril9, 1
Antonin Kubalek, piano
Prominent concert pianist and prolific recording artist, Antonin Kubalek presents a solo re-
cital featuring Daniel Foley’s Rhapsody in C, Op. 33; Novak's Pan, Op. 42 (Canadian pre-
miere) and Bach-Busoni’s Choral Prelude.

All concerts take place at 8:00 p.m. in Walter Hall. Tickets are $15/10. For more infor-
mation please call (416) 978-3744.